By Alpha Abu
Copies of an upgraded version of Sierra Leone’s passport have been presented to President Julius Maada Bio and Vice President Dr.Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh. According to State House Communications Unit, Chief Immigration Officer , Andrew Jaiah Kaikai presented the passports to the first two gentlemen of the republic in Freetown.
The new passport is said to have special security features which makes it difficult to be forged or duplicated.
Minister of Internal Affairs, David Panda-Noah, who was present at the event, said the initiative was a part of President Bio’s directives to transform the immigration system, and that they had engaged the contractor for the new passport to meet ‘’all ICAO and other international standards’’. He said ‘’the chip embedded in the passport makes it electronically readable and could be used at any E-gate’’.
In another development, State House also reported the conferring of citizenship status, on 109 (one hundred and nine) Africans from the Diaspora. President Julius Maada Bio congratulated them as they subscribed to the oath of allegiance. He described the event as one that had been the climax of a historic journey after months and years of searching for their ancestral roots.
President Bio said: ‘’the history of slavery has always been etched on our minds because our brothers and sisters were captured and sold from the early 16th century to the late 18th century’’
He spoke about the country’s slave past including Bunce Island Slave Fortress and the return of freed slaves to the colony of Freetown.
He said the future of Sierra Leone could not be defined by the agonising history of slavery, and all the reason why his government was implementing the Free Quality Education Programme that is serving over two million children nationwide.
He highlighted his government’s recent reforms saying: "We have abolished the 55-year-old criminal libel law and now guaranteed journalists the freedom to hold the government accountable. We abolished the death penalty and enacted the historic Gender Equality and Empowerment Act, among others’’.
Bio spoke about building a new Sierra Leone that is progressive, educated, and investor-friendly.
‘’Therefore, over the years, we have been heartened by the homecoming of hundreds from the Sierra Leonean African Diaspora. Some have not just subscribed to the oath, collected passports, and returned, but they are already making a difference in many communities’’, he disclosed.
The president encouraged the new citizens to serve as ambassadors in rebranding and promoting Sierra Leone, urging them to explore trade and investment opportunities, and to harness their experience and knowledge for the development of the country whilst also contributing to making Sierra Leone an attractive travel destination for those Africans in the diaspora.
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